With regard to the upcoming vote on the water project on June 10, I attended a forum to discuss it, expecting to object to having to vote again as well as objecting to the project itself. I came away having changed my mind. There are several reasons why.

First, the new project includes additional grant funds that will cover the fire protection cost, so there will be no "hydrant charge" as there was in the initial project proposal. The additional grant money makes this possible and fire protection is certainly a benefit to the whole community. The grant funds will also subsidize part of the user fee so in the new proposal the average user fees are lowered.

I also did not know before how dire the need is for clean water in parts of the village. In several places the water is yellow!

I urge those of you who initially voted against the project to rethink it. The level of community mistrust and anger has been high. I found the select board members to be very approachable, transparent and clear about the reasons why Waitsfield needs this project to go forward.